Comment

Comment on Kia drops the ball again on their vehicles

Engines with start-stop have beefier starter motors. Electric motors can be sized for basically any task - the motors in my EV are not going to wear out and their duty cycle is crazy compared to a starter motor! So it’s just a matter of cost and size.

Sounds insane to require drivers to disable start-stop to pass a test - where’s that? You mention stop signs so that sounds like the US. I’m afraid I don’t really trust US driving tests to accomplish anything sensible…

source

Sort:hotnew top

Sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

You mention stop signs so that sounds like the US

Wait hold on… why’s that? Is there any juristiction where there are traffic laws, but no stop signs?

source
- FishFace@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Stop signs are not a big part of driving in some countries. I obviously don’t know about everywhere, but in other countries I’m familiar with (Europe), most USA “stop” junctions are give way/priority/yield junctions where you don’t have to come to a complete stop, so stop-start would have no impact.
  
  In the UK, you only get Stop signs on junctions where your view is so extremely limited that anything less than a stop or absolute dead crawl would just always be dangerous. They’re very rare. In comparison, Yield signs in the USA are comparitively rare (in my experience) and most junctions where you most yield priority are governed by Stop signs.
  
  source
  - Sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    I guess the part of Italy I live in stop signs are best described by your second paragraph, but they’re pretty frequent. These roads get wild sometimes.
    
    source
Sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

Sounds insane […]

This is in Italy, it IS insane, and admittedly I don’t know how much my grievances against S&S are mitigated by automatic transmissions (never used in tests).
Tests do not require you to disable S&S, instructors simply tell you not to let out the clutch while in neutral to avoid it, but the strictest examiners see engine shutdowns as “failure to correctly operate the vehicle”, like stalling - if it happens once, we all make mistakes, if it happens twice, come on man, if it happens three times k gg bb, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a feature of the car.

Most of the people who turn S&S off do so because they find it annoying, I myself try to use it effectively but I prefer driving responsibly rather than playing chess with a half-metric-ton deadly weapon.

There are arguments that having your engine off on the road is unsafe, I guess those examiners are just being zealous? If they even exist, I’m trusting my instructor’s tales on this factoid, but drivers’ ed here is very strict so I’m inclined to believe him.

I do know that S&S systems require better starters, but that just means they cost more, right? And even if the increased cost is marginal, the increased fuel consumption on short stops is still a problem.

source
- FishFace@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I see. That sounds very over-zealous to me, yes. The delay in moving off is so small that it doesn’t really have a safety impact (and the idea that a delay in moving off is a safety issue is way overblown in general, because the occasions when it comes up are so rare compared to the occasions when adequate braking comes up.).
  
  The beefier motors do cost more, and I haven’t seen a cost comparison. I would imagine they don’t cost much more though, and soon pay for themselves if you’re driving in the city. And they won’t overall increase fuel consumption - that much is clear from measurements. A random reddit post claimed that the break-even point in stop-start is a mere 7 seconds, which is basically every red light. Idk if that’s reliable but it gives you something to consider.
  
  source
  - Sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    I’d still like to be able to engage S&S with a button without shutting of the oil pump and whatnot, tbh.
    
    source